Amels’ Axe Bow Project

Being part of the Damen Shipyard Group has its advantages for Amels. Besides being able to tap into the research and development knowledge that Damen has developed after delivering 4,000 vessels to date (about 168 last year alone), Amels can actually borrow its boats.

Or more accurately, market them for sale.

During the press tour I’ve been on this week (organized by HISWA, the Dutch yacht-building federation), Amels revealed that the owner of a 100-meter-plus megayacht ordered not one, but two of Damen’s Sea Axe Fast Crew Supplier vessels to serve as yacht supply/shadow vessels. Developed for the offshore oil industry, the Sea Axe features an axe bow (see above), that knife-sharp design borne by some other commercial and military vessels, and a design echoed, with some differences, by some recent launches in the superyacht sector (think Aviva and Predator, though Aviva’s bow was an aesthetic, not functional, element, and Predator’s bow was a wave-piercing design). Considering crew-supply boats run literally thousands of hours each year in all sorts of conditions, the axe bow allows the vessels to operate in bad sea states without having to reduce speed – no exaggerated vertical movements as would be the case with a traditional bow design. In fact, Amels showed our group of journalists a video of tank tests in which the axe bow performed the best by far in heavy seas.

So what’s a superyacht owner want with two crew vessels? He’s having them outfitted to handle toys and extra crew, among other things. Which got Amels thinking: Maybe other owners would be interested, too. After consulting several captains in the Amels fleet, the shipyard decided to market the concept as the Fast Yacht Supplier, the model of which is pictured here.

The information here is really just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Amels is presently preparing renderings that show an abundance of toys on deck, so once they’re ready, I’ll post them, along with more details.